Mayor de Blasio Sets the Tone for Administration with Two Recent Announcements

Mayor de Blasio continued to lay out an ambitious agenda for his administration, which illustrates his commitment to making New York City a better place to be a child.

In his announcement of the City’s Preliminary Budget for Fiscal Year 2015 on February 12, Mayor de Blasio baselined many programs previously funded by one-year City Council discretionary funding and called for the end of the “budget dance,” where every year the Mayor cuts the same services that are then restored by the City Council. The budget also proposes to increase funding for critical programs, such as full-day universal pre-kindergarten, after-school programs and services for runaway and homeless youth. In addition, Mayor de Blasio explained that he was working with the State to create a new homelessness prevention program that would include eviction prevention services and rental assistance.

In the Mayor’s State of the City address earlier in the week, he emphasized how investments in New York City’s children are not only a commitment to their future, but also to the future of all New Yorkers. He outlined efforts to stimulate economic stability for low and middle income families by providing paid sick leave and raising the minimum wage, as well as developing 200,000 new affordable housing units and protecting access to community health services. He also continued to press for Albany to grant New York City the authority to provide universal pre-k for every four-year-old and after-school for every middle school student through a modest, temporary tax on personal income of New York City’s wealthiest residents.